Zorena Jantze
THE Minister of Justice, Yvonne Dausab, has rebutted recent comments made by Bernadus Swartbooi in the National Assembly suggesting that members of parliament currently in homosexual relationships are a disgrace and should also be disciplined as Namibia has a sodomy law in place.
During a session in parliament last week, Swartbooi, the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), said that there are members of the ruling Swapo Party who bring down the dignity and reputation of the August House by having criminal convictions and by engage in homosexual relationships.
“I’m not being homophobic, however, what about members of the ruling party who are involved in such relationships outside, and who bring down the dignity and reputation of this house? Should we also not look at them when looking at the reputation of the house?” Swartbooi said.
The Minister of Justice on her part said Swartbooi’s disparaging comments do not have a place in the conversations in parliament as the personals lives of people, whether they are homosexuals or convicts, is not under consideration in the August House.
“I think for (Swartbooi) to have spoken in such disparaging language about other Namibians does not auger well for the dignity of the August House and for the dignity of others. It is clearly only meant as an unnecessary distraction from the real issue before the House, which is the MPs conduct,” Dausab told Informanté today.
Dausab further explained that the sodomy law criminalizes consensual sexual activity between males, but that it is not an issue for the August House until such a time that the issue becomes a consideration to the legislature.
She added that the fact that certain people in society are weaponising people’s private lives should in itself be frowned upon in any country with a Bill of rights that protects the right to privacy and human dignity.
Touching on the report on obsolete laws by the Namibia Law Reform and Development Commission (LRDC), which also calls for the repealing of the Sodomy law, Dausab stated that the report was presented to Cabinet, which is looking into the matter.
She stated that at this stage, the Ministry of Justice intends to table the LRDC report for possible discussion in the National Assembly and hopefully with the object of having it referred to the committee on constitutional and legal affairs for further action.
“At this stage it is difficult to say whether the specific proposal to repeal the common law offence of sodomy will succeed. It is really up to the National Assembly to consider and discuss the report and depending on the NA resolution will we know how to take it further. At the moment sodomy is criminalised, but will require law enforcement enforcing the common law, which will be difficult because any person accused of it must be found in the act, unless you assume those that are openly in homosexual relationships commit sodomy, in which case we will have serious violations of the latter and spirit of the Namibian Constitution,” Dausab said.
She concluded that homosexuality in general is not illegal in Namibia and that the repeal of the outdated sodomy law does not mean there will be no protection for those who are raped.
“The Combating of Rape Act 8 of 2000, adequately protects any person that is raped, but certainly we cannot criminalise or police love or consensual sex and that is what this report from the LRDC is addressing. Also the repeal of this common law offence will not necessarily lead to same-sex marriage as is widely believed,” Dausab said.
